DEQ is increasing air quality rules for the Upper Green River Basin

The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality is issuing stricter air quality rules for the Upper Green River Basin.

The area does not meet federal air quality standards because emissions from oil and gas production have caused ozone to form. The new rules impose stricter emissions controls on new facilities, or facilities that are being modified.

The D-E-Q’s Steve Dietrich says these requirements were already in place within the boundaries of the Jonah and Pinedale Anticline gas fields … but now they’ll extend to the entire Upper Green River Basin.

“I can’t give you a firm number of how many facilities that would affect, because we don’t know when a facility is going to modify their existing facility or a new facility is going to go online.”

But Dietrich says he thinks the new rules will be a big step in helping the area solve the ozone problem.

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The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality is wrapping up an engine emissions study it started in May of 2011. The study looks at emissions from engines around the state, like generators running on oil and gas fields, to find out if those emissions are in compliance with air quality laws.

DEQ Air Quality Engineer Jon Walker says operators have traditionally been in charge of monitoring their own engines, but he says that’s not a good system.